After years of Olive Garden disregarding delivery, the sales channel continues to be a source of strength for the casual-dining giant.
The chain’s partnership with Uber Eats is attracting younger, higher-income consumers who are paying more than dine-in guests. Delivery sales mixed 4 percent in the second quarter, and about half of that was incremental, according to Darden CEO Rick Cardenas.
And that’s without any marketing efforts.
“I think the way that would increase is if we do some more marketing and get more people into it. But it’s tracking pretty closely to our overall to-go business,” Cardenas said during Darden’s Q2 earnings call. “And we feel good where that is with the incrementality we’re getting. But if we want to drive that up, we have some options on the marketing side.”
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The current partnership is with Uber Direct, meaning customers order delivery off of Olive Garden’s channels instead of through the third-party delivery platforms.
Will Olive Garden eventually appear on these aggregator websites? Some problem-solving and negotiations will have to happen first.
“I would say the two big third-party delivery providers know what our concerns are on third party,” Cardenas said. “And as long as we get a solution for those concerns, then we would look at it. It wouldn’t make sense for us not to look at it, but we really do have some concerns and they know what they are.”
First-party delivery helped Olive Garden achieve 4.7 percent same-store sales growth in the second quarter. Traffic—with the inclusion of catering—lifted 2.8 percent. Pricing was 2.6 percent. Those growth figures were offset by negative menu mix.
Olive Garden earned $1.36 billion in Q2 sales, up from $1.29 billion a year ago. Segment profit was $297.3 million, an increase from $277.8 million in Q2 2025.
Darden once viewed delivery as more margin destructive and was concerned about how customers would take the higher pricing. But Cardenas and the leadership team acknowledged significant customer demand for the service and the need to meet people where they are, without disrupting the restaurants’ operating model.
Earlier this year, the restaurant group extended first-party delivery to Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen. In March, Darden said it would be piloted in 10 stores and then extended across the system.
During Q2, Yard House began rolling out first-party delivery as well. Although the impact won’t be as large as Olive Garden—because of Yard House’s identity as a bar and its smaller off-premises business—Cardenas emphasized the brand is still “pleased with the initial results.”
LongHorn Steakhouse could be the next to add first-party delivery.
“We do know that when guests order at LongHorn off-premise, the mix is different. So they order more chicken and seafood and a little less steak than they do in the dining room,” Cardenas said. “So it’s something that LongHorn is learning from the other brands to see if it makes sense for us to go on to Uber Direct. And if it does, then we’ll start testing it. But we don’t have anything to say about that right now.”
Moving back to Olive Garden, the chain was also supported by the Never Ending Pasta Bowl, which was priced at $13.99 for the fourth straight year. The promotion experienced all-time high guest satisfaction scores, a higher mix, and record refill rates during the second quarter.
Cardenas noted that first-party delivery’s success is helping Olive Garden reinvest in other parts of the business, like the new lighter portion menu featuring smaller serving sizes and lower prices. Thanks to this new offering—which is mixing around 1.5 percent—the brand has seen a double-digit increase in affordability perception and growth in frequency. Forty percent of restaurants offered the lighter portion menu during Q2, and another 20 percent was added early into Q3. Olive Garden expects a complete rollout in January.
Right now, there are no plans to place marketing behind the lighter portions menu. Because of its current success, there’s no need, Cardenas said.
“If that changes, we’ll have to find the right way to communicate it. But it will have to be something that we feel like we’ve got a great way to communicate it to explain what it is for consumers that don’t really know that section of the menu,” Cardenas said. “But I think that there’s a better way to do that, which is just let the consumer tell their friends. And so right now, we don’t have plans to do it. But if that changes, it’s because Olive Garden came up with a great way to talk about it.”
It’s also not lost on Cardenas how the lighter portion menu could help when it comes to growing usage of weight loss drugs.
“The lighter portion section is helpful for that. But we aren’t doing the lighter portion just for GLP-1,” Cardenas explained. “We’re doing it to give all of our guests more options. It just so happens to benefit the consumers that might want smaller portions that are on GLP-1 medications. And we have a lot of options like that in all of our menus.”
Olive Garden hopes to continue momentum in the third quarter with two fan-favorite LTOs, Ravioli di Portobello and Braised Beef Tortellini.
Darden’s entire portfolio saw positive sales in Q2. LongHorn led the way with 5.9 percent growth in comps. The group’s other business segment (Cheddar’s, Seasons 52, and Yard House) saw same-store sales lift 3.1 percent and fine dining (Ruth’s Chris Steak House, The Capital Grille, and Eddie V’s) increased 0.8 percent.
Darden opened 17 restaurants in Q3. It expects 65 to 70 store debuts for fiscal 2026.
